Encyclopedia of

Steven J. Heyer

Chief Executive Officer of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

Steven J. Heyer

Born Steven Jay Heyer, June 13, 1952, in New York, NY; son of Harold (an
attorney) and Ethel Heyer; married Margaret Tobin, February 13, 1989;
children: Kate, David.
Education:
Cornell University, B.S., 1974; New York University Stern School of
Business, M.B.A., 1976.

Sidelights

Steven J. Heyer heads Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, the
third-largest hotel chain in the world, behind Best Western and Marriott.
A veteran of both the broadcasting and consumer-beverage industries, Heyer
is known for his swift and decisive management style, cost-cutting skills,
and talent for recognizing new marketing opportunities. He is still
sometimes referred to by his college-era nickname of "Tank,"
and among the ranks of American corporate executives is also known for his
drive and indefatigable dedication to his job. "Lots of people are
smart; Steve is scary smart," friend Michael Reene, a business
leader in Atlanta, told
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
, writer Scott Leith. "Lots of people are focused; Steve is scary
focused."

Heyer was born on June 13, 1952, in New York City. He grew up in the
borough of Queens, in a family headed by his attorney-father. After
attending a private college-preparatory academy, Heyer entered Cornell
University in Ithaca, New York, where he and some friends decided to build
their own army tank with parts they began ordering through the mail and
became campus legends when they put it together. His parents hoped he
would enter law school, but when he graduated from Cornell in 1974 with a
degree in industrial relations, he went on to New York University's
Stern School of Business instead. During his two years in the M.B.A.
program, he took night classes while working at a plant of 3M, the
chemical giant, in New Jersey.

In 1976, Heyer joined Booz, Allen & Hamilton, the international
strategy consulting firm, in New York City. The company's clients
include some of the world's most prestigious corporations, and Booz
Allen consultants provide advice on how to improve financial performance
and gain market share. Over the next 15 years, Heyer rose to the post of
senior vice president and managing partner at the firm, becoming the
youngest person ever to achieve the latter title. One of his accounts was
Turner Broadcasting, the Atlanta, Georgia, company that owned
super-station WTBS as well as the Cable News Network (CNN). After
decamping to serve as president and chief operating officer of Young
& Rubicam Advertising Worldwide between 1992 and 1994, Heyer was
hired as president of Turner Broadcasting Sales, Inc. In that post he
became "the point man in the cable industry's campaign to
convince ad agencies that widely distributed cable channels should be as
much a part of a marketing plan as broadcast television, prompting an
increase in cable ad revenues overall," noted
New York Times
journalist Jim Rutenberg.

Heyer spent several years at Turner; he was promoted to president of
Turner Broadcasting System's worldwide sales, marketing,
distribution and international networks. In January of 1998, he became
chief operating officer for Turner Broadcasting System Inc., and was given
responsibility for the CNN property in late 2000. With an imminent merger
of CNN's parent company, Time Warner, with America Online (AOL),
excess spending at the news outlet needed to be reined in, and Heyer was
considered the ideal candidate for that unpopular job. It marked the first
time that someone without a journalism background was making key decisions
at CNN, and for a time Heyer's name was even mentioned as a
possible head of the merged Time Warner/AOL entity.

That job failed to materialize, and Heyer was recruited by the Coca-Cola
Company, another Atlanta powerhouse, to head Coca Cola Ventures, its
new-business unit, in March of 2001. His arrival marked a shift for the
venerable beverage-maker, which had been known as a closed shop for much
of its century-plus history by then—meaning one that rarely hired
key executives from the outside. Once again, Heyer rose quickly within the
organization, taking over the global marketing direction in the spring of
2002 and then becoming president and chief operating officer in December
of that year. Coca-Cola had once been one of the most impressive
multinational corporations in U.S. business history, but had faltered in
recent years, and Heyer's vision was considered crucial to
re-establishing its hegemony for the twenty-first century. Over the next
year, Heyer oversaw a company restructuring, the introduction of several
new products, and a new entertainment tie-in strategy, such as a deal with
the producers of the hit television show
American Idol
to place cans of Coca-Cola and Vanilla Coke on the judges' table.

Again, Heyer was in line for the top job at Coca-Cola, which would have
been the chief executive officer post. In a development much chronicled in
the business press, Coca-Cola's board began to consider other
names, and Heyer lost out on the job to E. Neville Isdell, a retired
Coca-Cola executive, in the spring of 2004. He walked away with a $24
million severance package, which incited debate on the compensation deals
parceled out to exiting executives at a time when a company's
financial outlook was less than auspicious. Prompted by angry
shareholders, the Coca-Cola board was forced to adopt a rule that gave
shareholders a vote on packages that came in at 2.99 times the annual
salary and bonus of the executive in question.

Heyer had moved on to Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide by
October of 2004. He became chief executive officer for the White Plains,
New York-based company, which owns or franchises 850 hotels. Its brands
include the Sheraton and Westin chains as well as the boutique W hotels.
In 2005, it acquired Le Méridien hotels, and was readying a new
brand, called Aloft, aimed at the mid-priced travel market. Once again,
Heyer found opportunities to work with other companies for lucrative
tie-in deals; American Express, for example, was one of the many companies
eager to reach guests at Starwood's upscale hotel properties, and
Heyer oversaw new partnerships with them as well as with Internet-service
portal Yahoo!, which opened Yahoo! cocktail lounges with Internet access
in some Sheraton properties.

Though there was some industry unease about the risks of inundating
travelers with advertising pitches, Heyer responded by asserting he had
carefully chosen the potential partners. "If we were to put a big
sign in a Westin room that said 'Buy one, get one free' and
there was a big picture of a roast turkey dinner," he told Melanie
Wells and Allison Fass in
Forbes
, "I would run from that brand as fast as I could."